Letter from Boston Moving Out By MASAKO YAMADA	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
引っ越し 雅子さんがレベッカ、リン、エイミーの 3 人のルームメートと過ごしたアパートを出る日がやってきました。賃貸契約が切れるまで少し日がありますが、9 月に入ると学生たちの引っ越しがピークに達するので、早めに引っ越しを済ませてしまうことにしました。

The apartment has been mighty empty since Rebecca and Lynne moved out, but now it's becoming even emptier: I've started to pack my bags, too. I am moving out of here this weekend. Officially, our lease runs out at the end of this month, but I've chosen to move to my new apartment a bit early, since I don't want to have to worry about moving during the week of my general physics exam. Fortunately, my bedroom in my new apartment is already vacant, and my new roommates are welcoming my early arrival.

September 1 is the busiest moving day in this area. This is no surprise, since Boston is a city full of students, and the new school year begins in September. U-Hauls and other rent-a-vans cram the streets on this day, and parking officials often overlook double-parked moving trucks, since parking spaces are difficult to find in many areas in Boston. They know that people have to get their belongings inside their new living quarters in some way or another: moving is a stressful event even without such nuisances as parking tickets.

Fortunately, I don't have to contend with peak crowds since I'm not moving at the beginning of the month. Also, although many students move their belongings by themselves by renting a van and asking friends to help them carry their furniture, I've chosen to hire professional movers to carry my stuff to my new home. My father has given me money so that I can hire a moving company, and I've gratefully accepted it. I'm not very strong physically, so I know that the possibility of my hurting myself while trying to carry my bookshelves and sofas is high. Even if I enlisted in the help of my friends to carry the larger pieces, I'd have to worry about their getting hurt ― and I'd be indebted to them even if they didn't. Moving services are not cheap, but all I have to do is pack my small belonging in boxes and wait for the movers to take the boxes ― and my larger furniture items ― away. They will bring everything into to my new room, as well.

I've already sent in two months' rent for my new apartment (most realtors require lease-signers to pay an extra month's rent in order to secure the apartment, but they later return it by not requiring the residents to pay the rent during the last month of the lease), and I've paid the deposit for the moving service, so all that remains of the bureaucratic details is for me to go to the post office to register my forwarding address. Other than that, it's simply up to me to pack.

In less than a week from now, Amy will be the only one left in this apartment. She has a lot of friends in the area so I doubt she will be lonely, but it's ironic that she's going to be the last one to leave, since at the beginning of this year, she seemed to be the only one who was sure of where she was going to live in the fall. For about half a year, Amy had been planning on moving to Seattle. The rest of us were the ones who were unsure of our living plans. However, Rebecca and Lynne have moved to Colombia, I've found a set of wonderful new roommates who live only a few T-stops away from my current apartment ― and Amy's Seattle plans have fallen through at the last minute. Ten days ago, she had the misfortune of breaking her arm, as well.

I haven't really talked to Amy in a while, but it seems that she's finally settled on living by herself in a studio apartment downtown. This is a big change from her original plan to move to Seattle, and it's certainly a big change from the co-op-like living arrangement we had this year, but she'll at least be living in a city in which she has friends. She's told me that although she doesn't like the city of Boston too much, she doesn't want to leave the people she knows here.

Amy and I will probably go to a nearby bar sometime this week to have our own little goodbye party. We've done lots of things together during the year as roommates, but we've never gone out together without the other roommates present. It seems that we'll finally be able to talk to each other in our final week as roommates. Quite understandably, Amy seems frazzled by the sudden change of plans, but my hope is that she'll enjoy her new living quarters ― and my intention is that we stay in touch even after we move.

Shukan ST: Aug. 29, 1997

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